Highlight Speakers

August 16, 1992

Two ex-presidents and two men whose bids for the Republican nomination were foiled are among the people scheduled to address the party's convention this week:

RONALD REAGAN: Now retired to California, the former president returns to the convention as the revered former leader of the conservative revolution that he led to the White House 12 years ago. Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He came to politics after a career as a Hollywood movie actor. Reagan, 81, was the nation's 40th president. He addresses the convention on Monday night.

GERALD FORD: A longtime former congressman, Gerald Ford was the 38th president. He was the only man to serve as president without being elected either president or vice president. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned in the midst of the Watergate scandal. A month later, Ford pardoned Nixon for any federal crimes he may have committed as president. Ford addresses the convention on Thursday night.

PATRICK BUCHANAN: Patrick Buchanan challenged President Bush for his own party's presidential nomination this year, running as a candidate of the conservative far-right. Buchanan, 53, never won a primary but made some surprisingly strong showings early in the campaign. Buchanan was a noted conservative newspaper columnist and television pundit, earning more than half-million dollars a year. He served in the Nixon and Ford White Houses as speechwriter and in other posts, and was director of communications for part of Reagan's second term. He addresses the convention on Monday night.

PAT ROBERTSON: Marion Gordon ``Pat'' Robertson is a religious leader, businessman and conservative who campaigned unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. Robertson, 62, is founder of Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, a Baptist minister and son of a former Virginia congressman. Robertson went to law school but did not practice as a lawyer, instead becoming a minister after having a religious experience in the mid-1950s. In 1959 he purchased a defunct television station in Portsmouth, which he turned into CBN, which now has revenues of $200 million a year. He addresses the convention on Wednesday night.